Much of our work in Evidence-Based Policy is focused on developing our understanding of programs and approaches shown to improve people’s lives. We fund rigorous evaluations including, wherever feasible, well-designed randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to assess the effectiveness of programs and practices. RCTs, which are widely recognized as the gold standard in scientific research, are the best way to learn whether an intervention actually produces the hoped-for effects. In an RCT, a sample of individuals or entities, such as schools or counties, is randomly assigned to a “treatment group” that receives the intervention, or to a “control group” that does not. The random assignment process, if carried out with a sufficiently large sample, ensures that there are no systematic differences between the two groups in either observable characteristics, like income or ethnicity, or unobservable characteristics, like personal motivation or family dynamics. Thus, any difference in outcomes between the two groups can be confidently attributed to the intervention and not to other factors. Examples of LJAF-funded RCTs include evaluations of: